Price, Coosie & Ray

Arthur Clifford (Coosie) Price 1900-1982 & Ethel Murray (Ray) (Scott) 1899-1987

“COUNT THAT DAY LOST WHOSE LOW DESCENDING SUN
VIEWS FROM THY HAND NO WORTHY ACTION DONE.”
Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage

Coosie was the second of six surviving children of Amelia Blanche Carrington-Smith and William Price. His siblings were: John Herbert (Jack), Charles Edward, Willa (Bill) (Glassco), Richard Harcourt (Dick) and Jean (Trenier-Michel) (Harvey).
Ray was the second of four born to James Archibald Scott and Ethel Breakey. Her siblings were Harold (killed in WW I), John (Jack) and Mary (Mimi) (Warrington).
Coosie and Ray knew each other growing up - Coosie in Quebec City and Ray in Breakeyville. Ray was often included in Price Family parties in Quebec and Tadoussac.
Coosie attended Bishop’s College School and school in England. In 1924 he graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada and began his apprenticeship with Price Brothers. A fine athlete, he was on the RMC hockey team and won awards in other sports. In his final year, he was one of four Company Sergeant Majors. Devoted to his father, he was with him the day he died in a landslide in Kenogami. By chance, he had at that fateful moment, been sent to the mill to pick up mill plans. His father’s death would change the course of his life as well as that of the entire Price family and the Price Brothers Pulp and Paper Company.
Ray, thanks to many things, including a charmed life growing up in Breakeyville, enjoyed more than her share of style and hosting skills. She also spoke French, a rarity amongst anglophones then living in Quebec.
In 1926 Coosie married Ray in the Presbyterian Church in Breakeyville. They could not be married in the Anglican Cathedral because Ray was a Presbyterian. Their first home was in Kenogami where their son Harold was born, then Quebec City, where Tony, Scott and Willa (Lal) were born. In 1933, Coosie, then in the bankruptcy court with a wife and four children, left Price Brothers, moved the family to Ottawa and worked for the Eddy Company until his return to Quebec. In spite of having lost their fortune, some of their happiest years were those spent in Ottawa.
In 1939 Coosie was asked to come back to Price Brothers as Vice President, Head of Sales. He became President in 1948, later Chairman and retired in 1964.
In 1949 Laval University honoured him with a Doctor of Laws for leading the fundraising for University City. When his great friend Mathew Ralph Kane died leaving him much of his estate he set up the Mathew Ralph Kane Foundation. To this day donations are focused on the Quebec and Saguenay/Lac Saint-Jean regions where Matt Kane lived and worked his whole life.
Coosie’s mother died in 1947 leaving Fletcher Cottage to her two daughters. They sold it to their cousin Harkey Powell. Harkey later sold it to Bill Glassco (a son of Willa). The Pilot House was left to the four boys. They drew straws and Charlie won. After moving to Victoria, Charlie sold the Pilot House to Coosie. By this time Coosie had built Maison Nicolas (1948) so a few years later he sold it to his son Harold. All sales were ‘token’ – happy to keep the houses in the family.
Coosie and Ray shared a love of entertaining. They did much of their business entertaining at the fishing Lodges - Anse St Jean and Sagard. Coosie was, by all accounts, a world-class fly fisherman. Ray was more than accomplished and together the whole family spent much time at these two fishing lodges. They also gave many memorable parties in their homes and on their boats.
Coosie’s day in Tad started with a round of golf with his cousin Harkey Powell and later Lewis & Betty Evans. When the Hotel decided to stop managing the Golf Course, Coosie put together arrangements to insure its continuation. He had great affection and admiration for the local families and could often be seen chatting with the regulars gathered on the bench in Pierre Cid’s. Like his father he especially loved children and at house events could often be found outside orchestrating children’s games to the delight of all. Among his many pre- and post-retirement hobbies were writing, photography, landscape oil painting, and mushroom hunting.
Ray, a passionate gardener, coaxed flowers and vegetables out of small beds in the granite on which Maison Nicolas sits. Though she started life a stranger to the kitchen, she became a fine cook and was ahead of her time with her insistence on the freshest of everything – not easy in Tadoussac in those days. Her management of the galley on Jamboree IV was nothing short of heroic. She entertained visitors aboard who showed up in ports from Quebec City to Anticosti Island and Tadoussac to Chicoutimi and graciously accommodated a captain known for casting off regardless of the weather forecast.
After retirement, they spent winters in Sonoma, California with their daughter and family, spring and fall in Brockville and, as always, summers in Tadoussac.
It was ‘Coosie and Ray’ with everything - travel, fishing, boating, entertaining, gardening and the game of bridge. They shared a great love with family and friends throughout their fifty-six years together.

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